Billet supply insufficient to meet demand in Iran

With billet supply unable to cover demand, serious billet shortages have emerged lately in the local Iranian steel market and the shortages are expected to continue for a while amid the current domestic economic conditions.
 
The local Iranian long steel market has been negatively affected by limited billet availability and ongoing problems in Iran's billet supply channels resulting from the influence of international economic sanctions against Iran and the Iranian government's exchange rate policy. While import activities for billet are drying up in Iran, local long steel mills are waiting for the government to become more active and to support billet imports.
 
While Iranian long steel producers are working at the minimum capacity due to billet shortages, at Anzali port near the Caspian Sea billet prices are at $870-880/mt loaded truck, excluding five percent VAT.
 
Rising import billet prices amid increasing energy costs, fluctuations in exchange rates and economic sanctions against Iran have also caused production costs to move up in the Iranian steel market.